Organic sodium is an undervalued mineral for digestive health, joint health, and overall wellness and vitality. Hear what Dr. Bernard Jensen, Ph.D. has to say about the benefits of sodium, which our Capra Mineral Whey is a natural source of.
We know the importance of mineral salts to the healthy functioning of the human body. The electrical effects which they impart as they pass through the body enable us to move, work, think, and accomplish. Some of these minerals impart the quality of hardness, such as calcium. Others impart the qualities of softness, flexibility, and activity, and the one mineral most capable of doing this is sodium. Sodium helps us to have elasticity, limberness, and youthfulness in our tissues. It is necessary for regulation of the fluid content and for normal flora in the intestinal tract and is necessary for good bowel evacuation. Sodium greatly affects the fluid balance throughout the body.
It is regrettable, therefore, that everyday modern living habits impose such a drain upon our reserves. We are surrounded by the influences of mechanization: We have electrical lighting that encourages overwork, radios that cause tension, television that calls for close concentration and eye strain, etc.
Besides all of these causes of strain, most people are the victims of devitalized foods that are acid producing and therefore require alkaline elements to neutralize them.
The waste acids produced in the body are irritating to the tissues and so seriously interefere with proper functionining that the digestive juices may no longer have proper consistency, and the acid-alkaline balance may be disturbed. The alkaline element most heavily drawn upon to neutralize these acids is sodium. Reserve supplies of sodium are stored in various organs of the body, but chiefly in the walls of the stomach. This makes the tissues of the stomach highly alkaline, as they should be to withstand the presence of the hydrochloric acid produced in these tissues.
When there is tissue destruction in parts of the walls, we call the resulting sores ulcers. They can occur when sodium has been drained from the tissues of the stomach for other purposes in the body. Whenever acids are produced any place in the body through mental strain, physical strain, eye strain, etc. sodium is withdrawn from the stomach to neutralize them. This leaves an acid stomach wall. With this disturbance of balance, the stomach wall cannot properly secrete hydrochloric acid, so digestion becomes impaired.
If we overdraw on the sodium reserve in the stomach, the organ with the next highest concentration of sodium will begin to suffer lack because the blood, in attempting to maintain chemical balance, will borrow it. Those tissues whose sodium-storing capacity is next highest to that of the stomach are the joint structures of the body. When sodium is withdrawn from the joints, a serious imbalance is created: calcium is left behind.
Now calcium, with its quality of harshness, can make tissues immobile; the joints may become rigid unless there is sufficient sodium present to keep the calcium in solution. This can lead to a lack of wellness and vitality in joints, neurological function, and digestion. Many doctors merely say that waste acids are responsible for this, but actually these acids would not be present if there was an adequate sodium reserve to neutralize them. In attempts to neutralize excess acids and gas formation, many persons make the mistake of taking baking soda. The sodium in this compound is inorganic, cannot be used by the body, acts as an irritant, and can neutralize only with the acid with which it is immediately in contact. Some persons expect table salt or sodium chloride to aid in the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, but this is also an irritant and cannot be used for correction and repair of body tissue. Instead of using alkalizers and drugs, we should turn to natural food alkalizers such as are present in vegetable juices, ripe fruits, etc.
When we are confronted with lack of sodium in the body, we should replenish the supply by using natural foods that are high in sodium content. Raw goat milk is one of the foods highest in sodium and it is easily assimilated. It seems to be very beneficial in cases of stomach ulcer and in rheumatic and arthritic conditions. Another excellent source of sodium is veal joint broth, which is made by cooking out the gelatin from a beef joint with no meat in it. Plants that are matured in the sunshine are high in sodium. The acids in green fruits are sour, but when allowed to mature the sodium content gives them their sweet taste. Citrus fruits when tree ripened, are high in sodium, but so many of them are picked green and expected to ripen in storage that eating them may cause disturbance – especially in a stomach deficient in sodium. Cabbage juice and strawberry juice are good sources of sodium, as is celery stalk. Okra is one of our highest sodium-containing foods, is very soothing to the stomach wall, and therefore excellent for cases of ulcer.
Another sodium food which we have used a great deal in our clinic is Capra Mineral Whey which is a natural food for Lactobacillus acidophilus bacteria in the intestine.
We should aim to prevent the formation of excess waste acids in the body so that we need not bankrupt the organs in which sodium is stored, such as the stomach and joints. We should constantly replenish the supply by eating natural foods that are high in sodium. We will thus have better digestion, assimilation, and elimination, and prevent a lack of vitality and wellness in our body.
- Goat Milk Benefits, Nutrition News
Dr. Bernard Jensen Ph.D.
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